PRÁCTICA GRAMATICAL DEL INGLÉS

THE NOUN PHRASE

Prof. Titular: Fabián Negrelli

Prof. Asistente: Candelaria Luque Colombres

CICLO LECTIVO 2020

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
Partitive constructions
Both countable and uncountable nouns can enter partitive construction s, i.e.,
constructions denoting part of a whole. Such constructions express both quality
partition (which is expressed by a partitive count noun like kind, sort or type
followed by an of-phrase.) and quantity partition (a piece of; a bit of; an item
of; etc.)

Partitives can be used with mass or count nouns:

a loaf of bread (Mass)

a box of matches (Count)

 They are particularly useful when we want to refer to specific pieces of mass
nouns (uncountable substance):

chalk
a piece cloth
pieces info
of
a bit meat
bits plastic
paper

 They also allow us to make noncount nouns countable.

two bottles of water

two scoops of ice cream
six pounds of coffee

a) Specific partitives:

a bar / a slab of chocolate a cake of soap

a cube of ice a cloud of / a speck of dust
a lump of sugar a flash / bolt of lightning
a sheet of paper an item of news
a slice of meat a roll / a piece / a sheet of paper
a tube of toothpaste a rasher of bacon / ham
a block of wood a clap / a peal / a cra sh /a roll of thunder
a roll of film a round / a thunder of applause
a slice of ham a piece / a lump of coal
a bit / a blade of grass a piece / a stick of chalk
a page of a book a branch of tree
a section of a newspaper an item of clothing
a stroke of good luck a word of information

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
 a piece of evidence
a piece of jewelry
a verse of a poem
a gust of wind
a pool of water
a handful of occasions
a pile of laundry / books
a stick of dynamite
a rasher of bacon
b) “Containers” used as partitives:
a bag of flour
a cup of coffee
a jar of jam / honey
a glass of water
a box of cereal
a carton of eggs
c) Small quantities:
a blade of glass
a crust of bread
a dash of soda
a pinch of salt
a pat of butter
d) Measures:
a kilo of sugar
a gallon of petrol
a pint of milk
a cup of rice
a sack of potatoes / coal
e) “a game of”
a game of bridge / chess / tennis / football
f) “abstract concepts”
a period of calm
a branch of knowledge
a piece of research
an atom / a grain of truth an act of courage
Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
a suite of furniture
a piece of music
a piece of stereo equipment
a flake of snow
a shower of rain
a roomful of antiques / furniture
a ball of string
a heap of earth
a piece (a bit) of news
a bottle of milk
a can of beer
a flask of tea
a pot of yoghurt
a carton of milk / orange juice
a can of tuna fish
a grain of rice
a lock of hair
a drop of water /blood
a bit of chalk
a teaspoon of salt
a metre of/ a length of cloth
a pound of coffee
a litre of oil
a tablespoon of sugar
a bit / a piece / a word of advice
a fit of anger / passion
a segment of society
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g) Some measure words used to talk about the shape or appearance of t he food
item:
an ear of corn
a clove of / a head of garlic
a head of lettuce

 Proper nouns:
Some important categories of proper nouns are:

 personal names: William; Ralph; Sandra; Paul; Mr. Thompson

 names of animals (pets): Fido (a dog’s name), Pol ly (a parrot’s name); Felix
(a cat’s name)
 geographical names: the Pacific; the Andes; London University
 public buildings and institutions: St. Paul’s Cathedral; The Eiffel Tower; The
Great Wall of China
 holidays; festivals of the year: Christmas; Independ ence Day; Carnival;
Easter
 months and days of the week : Tuesday; Saturday; July; October
 names of people in fiction : Aladdin; Robin Hood; Santa Claus; Harry Potter
 titles of magazines, newspapers, books and movies: The New Scientists; The
Times; Over the Rainbow; The Buenos Aires Herald; Sense and Sensibility
 languages: French; Japanese; Russian, German
 beliefs and their followers: Buddhism; Buddhists; Christianity, Christians;
Judaism; Jews
 business companies and other organisations: Learners Publishing; L ongman;
Oxford University Press; Real Madrid (a football team); the Red Cross

Proper nouns are not used with determiners (except for the definite article in
some cases such as the Pacific, the Eiffel Tower, the United States ) and they do
not vary in numbe r. Orthographically, they are marked by an initial capital letter,
e.g. Austria, Saint Paul’s.

 Collective nouns:
They are words which refer to groups of single entities (people, animals,
objects). They behave like ordinary countable nouns; they vary in n umber and
definiteness.
committee, team, club, family, staff, forest, army

Quirk et al (1985) divide collective nouns into three categories:

(i) specific collective nouns like committee, crew, family, etc .
(ii) generic collective nouns like the aristocracy, the clergy, the public, etc.
(iii) unique collective nouns like the Arab League, Parliament, the United
Nations, the Vatican, etc .

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
Of-collectives
One special class of collective nouns often comes before an of -phrase describing
the members of a group. These are call ed of-collectives .

a set of characteristics
a herd of cows
a pack of lies
a series of accidents
a swarm of bees
a group of people
a bunch of roses
a crowd of fans
a flock of sheep
a troupe of actors
a pile of books
a horde of tourists / savages
a pack of cards
a party of cyclists
a gang of art thieves
a board of directors
a family of mice
a team of researchers
a pride of lions
a troop of monkeys
a pack of wolves
a litter of kittens
a school of dolphins
a chain of events
a set of dishes
a list of names
a range of numbers
a bunch of keys
a stack of chairs
a clutch of eggs
a row of houses
a pile of newspapers
a suite of rooms
a nest of tables
a cluster / a clump of trees
a fleet of ships / boats / ambulances
a heap of stones
a flight of steps

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
FORMATION OF TH E PLURAL

Most nouns form their plural by adding “ s” to the base.

chair chairs
table tables
cup cups
book books
room rooms

Nouns ending in –s, -ss, -sh, -ch, -x, -z add “es”, forming another syllable.
bus buses
class classes
wish wishes
church churches
box boxes
buzz buzzes

However, with nouns ending in ch pronounced / k /, we should add only “ s”.

stomach stomachs
epoch epochs

Nouns ending in a vowel + -y take –s in the plural.

toy toys
key keys
boy boys
monkey monkeys

Nouns ending in a consonant + y drop the “y” and take –ies in the plural.
baby babies
party parties
cherry cherries
allergy allergies

However, the plural of proper nouns is formed by adding “s”, not “es”.

Kennedy Kennedys
Gary Garys

Nouns ending in o take –es to form the plural form.

tomato tomatoes
hero heroes
potato potatoes
echo echoes

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
Notice that some nouns ending in –o take either –es or –s. Some of these are:
buffalo es / buffalos; mosquitoes / mosquitos; volcanoes / volcano s; zeroes /
zeros; tornado es / tornados / halos; haloes / mangos, mangoes.
However, some nouns – mostly abbreviations, musical terms of Italian origin, and
some words which were originally foreign – take only –s to form the plural:
kilo kilos
memo memos
photo photos
piano pianos
concerto concertos (but also concerti)
soprano sopranos
virtuoso virtuosos (but also v irtuos i)
libretto librettos (but also libretti)
tempo tempos

Nouns ending in f, ff or ffe add –s to form the plural.

roof roofs
chief chiefs
cliff cliffs
giraffe giraffes
sheriff sheriffs
cuff cuffs
tariff tariffs
gaffe gaffes

There is, however, a group of nouns ending in f that change f into –ves to form
the plural.
calf calves self selves
half halves shelf shelves
knife knives thief thieves
life lives wife wives
loaf loaves wolf wolves
leaf leaves elf elves
Notice that with some nouns ending in f both plural endings are possible:

scarf: scar fs / scarves

hoof: hoofs / hooves
dwarf: dwarfs / dwarves

There are some nouns which are completely irregular. These nouns form their
plural by changing the middle vowel(s).

man men ox oxen

woman women louse lice
child children goose geese

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
 tooth teeth foot feet
mouse mice

Zero plurals: There are some nouns which do not change in the plural.
series trout
species spacecraft
sheep aircraft
deer salmon
reindeer carp
aircraft hovercraft
offspring elk

There is a group of nouns that look singular but are in fact plural.
cattle
people
police
clergy

Although some nouns look plural (they en d in s), they are in fact singular.
economics news
ethics mumps
phonetics darts
(the) bends measles
hives rabies
rickets shingles
hiccups AIDS
bowls athletics

A number of nouns (in general, things that have two corresponding parts joined
together, or things that consist of a set of two usually identical items that are
used together) only occur with a plural suffix and are known as pluralia tantum.
Such nouns are followed by plural verb form.

belongings proceeds condolences remembrances

pants shorts surroundings trousers
glasses stairs binoculars scales
riches goods lodgings premises
compasses valuables scissors pyjamas
clothes earnings congratulations looks
outskirts ashes barracks shears
oats customs archives minutes
wages annals munitions bellows
tights tweezers greens troops
auspices particulars headphones brains
bifocals aerobatics abdominals alms
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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
Examples

My new jeans are Italian.

We have to buy Peter new pyjamas, since his old ones are worn out.
In this experiment, headphones are to be used.
The ship's doctor made use of tweezers to remove the foreign object.
The minutes were kept by Sheila.
The goods have been exported to Germany.
All our valuables have been stolen.
The police searched all our belongings.
His wages are very low.

Foreign plurals

There is a group of nouns whose members are commonly referred to as 'foreign plurals'. What
the nouns in this group have in common is that both their singular and their plural forms have
been borrowed from other languages, which means that the plural ending is not the regular
English -s, but something else. Thus, there are a number of words of Latin or Greek origin that
keep their foreign plural forms:

Words of Latin origin:

alumna alumnae
alumnus alumni
axis axes
bacillus bacilli
bacterium bacteria
erratum errata
larva larvae
medium media
stratum strata
datum data
vertebra vertebrae
corpus corpora
nucleus nuclei
radius radii

Words of Greek origin:

analysis analyses
basis bases
crisis crises
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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
 criterion criteria
hypothesis hypotheses
oasis oases
parenthesis parentheses
phenomenon phenomena
synopsis synopses
thesis theses

What usually happens when a word is borrowed into English (or into some other language) is that
it is changed in line with the morphology of the language into which it has been borrowed.
Consequently, there are some foreign words in English that have both the original foreign plural
form and an English one.

appendix appendixes appendices

aquarium aquaria aquariums
cactus cacti cactuses
fungus fungi funguses
syllabus syllabi syllabuses
curriculum curricula curriculums
focus foci focuses
formula formulae formulas
maximum maxima maximums
memorandum memoranda memorandums
minimum minima minimums
retina retinae retinas
symposium symposia symposiums

Many foreign words have become completely naturalised and always take the
English plural.
album albums
arena arenas
asylum asylums
bonus bonuses
campus campuses
chorus choruses
circus circuses
demon demons
era eras
panacea panaceas
peninsula peninsulas
solo solos
sonata sonatas
stadium stadiums
villa villas

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
Nouns from French that end in eau in the singular and in eaux in the French
plural, usually have “ s” endings in English:

bureau bureaus
plateau plateaus
tableau tableaus

Plural of Proper Nouns

When proper nouns are re -classified as common nouns, they may take the articles
and form the plural.

They consider themselves Shakespeares. (= good writers)

There are two Martins in this class (= two students called “Martin”)
The Browns are not coming tonight. (= the Brown family)

Plural of Compound Nouns

Compound nouns – nouns which consis t of more than one base - form the plural in
different ways:

1. Most compounds are written as one word, and their plural is formed in the
regular way:

railways bookcases toothbrushes classrooms

When the compound noun is written as two words, or as words joined by a

hyphen, you add –s to the second word:

information office s shopping centre s fire engines

book clubs mobile phones word processors
walking sticks swimming pool -bus drivers

Notice that in the previous examples the last e lement is a count noun. If the last
element is a mass noun, of course the compound has no plural form:

homework moonlight

2. If the first element is a verb, the plural suffix goes at the end:

grown ups pullovers push-ups

breakdowns forget-me-nots sit-ins
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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2
3. Compounds consisting of a count noun + preposition or prepositional phrase,
take the plural on the first element (the noun):

sisters-in-law lookers-on passers-by runners-up hanger s-on

4. In compounds whose fir st element is “man” or “woman”, both elements

become plural:

manservant menservants woman doctor women doctors

man student men students woman student women students

5. Compounds in “ful” tend to take the plural in the second element; however,
they ma y also take it in the first element.

mouthful mouthfuls mouthsful

spoonful spoonfuls spoonsful

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Práctica Gramatical del Inglés Com B-C – 2020 - The Noun Phrase – Lesson 2